Saturday, March 7, 2015

Public reels from costs of oil and coal transport

Smoke and flames erupt from the scene of a train derailment Thursday, March 5, 2015, near Galena, Ill. A BNSF Railway freight train loaded with crude oil derailed around 1:20 p.m. in a rural area where the Galena River meets the Mississippi, said Jo Daviess County Sheriff's Sgt. Mike Moser. (Photo: Associated Press)

In Illinois, Flames and Clouds of Smoke Signal Yet Another 'Bomb Train' Disaster

Just as in a similar derailment that occured in West Virginia last month, the rail cars in Illinois that caught fire were newer-model CPC 1232, touted by the industry as safer than older models still widely used.According to the BNSF statement, all the tanker cars involved in Thursday's derailment were the "unjacketed CPC-1232 model with half-height head shields."

Work starting to catch, treat oil-soaked birds near Sunnyside

Since arriving in the Sunnyside area late Tuesday, the company’s employees had begun caring for seven rescued mallards and had identified four dead birds, victims of a spill of used oil on Sunday.Some 1,500 to 2,000 gallons of oil flowed into a ditch leading to the Sulphur Creek Wasteway after an above ground storage tank at a feedlot near Sunnyside failed. The oil flowed into the creek and then into the Yakima River, where a thin sheen has been seen as far downriver as Prosser.

Booms that act as a sponge to soak of oil, but not water, were being used to clean up the spill and to keep more oil from entering the Yakima River or the Yakama Nation fish hatchery.By Wednesday afternoon, the cleanup emphasis was being shifted to collecting oily debris in the ditch and creek, Lewis said.The investigation into the incident will come after much of the emergency cleanup is completed. Most of the cost of the response is being paid for through Ecology’s Oil Spill Response Account.

Tell President Obama: Stop Oil Trains, and Put Our Firefighters and the Public First

about the petition

Across the country, thousands of firefighters face an unprecedented new threat as big oil sends trains carrying millions of gallons of explosive crude through their communities. Despite the risks, the oil industry is saddling firefighters with the threat of fires and explosions that few, if any, fire departments can contain.Even after a record year of disasters, the U.S. Department of Transportation has yet to take action to stop these bomb trains. It's time to take the next step and demand that President Obama protect our nation's firefighters and the 25 million Americans who live in the oil train blast zone.

The Lummis sent a letter to the Corps on Thursday, March 5, providing details about how Gateway Pacific Terminal would disrupt the tribe’s fishing practices. The tribe won a court decision in the 1990s after challenging a salmon farm that sought Corps permits on Lummi fishing grounds.

The March 5 letter was in response to a letter dated Feb. 3 from the Corps, which asked the Lummis for more information before the federal agency could decide whether to block the coal terminal. The Lummis on Jan. 5 had asked the Corps to “take immediate action and deny the (Gateway Pacific Terminal) permit application based ... on the project’s adverse impact on the treaty (fishing) rights of the Lummi Nation.”

In a statement accompanying the latest letter, Lummi Chairman Tim Ballew said the Corps should be in a position to act swiftly to deny the coal terminal.